Job Often Upstream For Agents Fighting Drug-smuggling War

MELBOURNE — Tom Smith, a special investigator for the U.S. Customs Service, was trying to pass patrol time as 6-foot swells in the Atlantic Ocean pounded his 34-foot chase boat.

Like any veteran of the drug wars, the easiest thing to do was tell a story.

''We were out one time for three days in one of these,'' he said. ''The only time we came in was so someone could pass us sandwiches and then we'd go out again. Finally, we couldn't take it anymore. Three hours after we came in, so did the load.''

For officers like Smith, frustration is nothing new. Undermanned and stretched to the limit, the nine-man Customs unit based at Port Canaveral patrols 100 miles of coastline from Daytona Beach to Brevard County's Sebastian Inlet in a no-win battle against smugglers.

Besides the stretch of rough sea, they also keep tabs on 175 miles of the Intracoastal Waterway, where an innocent-looking boat plying the calmer waters could easily contain a smuggler's bread and butter.

In all, the duty is often grueling with 60-hour workweeks and long, uncomfortable nights on the water common.

''You watch a guy for months and months and then you get a call and someone says, 'Hey, it went down last night,' '' said Rick Nesossis, a Customs patrol officer. ''It's like a rabbit in its hole. The rabbit knows when it's going to run but the fox doesn't.''

Nesossis said the ocean off Brevard is not a main drug shipping lane. That distinction remains with the smuggler-infested waters off Miami and the Florida Keys, he said. But smugglers operating out of Central Florida try their luck in the area, shipping in everything from major loads of marijuana to smaller, one-time runs.

For example, Nesossis said officers seized 34,000 pounds of marijuana in a shrimp boat off Melbourne last March. Another 1,500 pounds of marijuana was grabbed in a sailboat off Melbourne in 1984. Then there are the small fry, like the Winter Park man who tried to make a quick score by running in one bale of marijuana.

''You never know what you're going to get when you pull up to a boat,'' Nesossis said. ''It could be a guy fishing with his family or a guy making his first run.''

Customs officers say Sebastian Inlet has become a favorite area for smugglers because its open beaches and access to the Intracoastal Waterway provide easy drop-off and rendezvous points. For that reason it is watched closely.

''I think for a long time the people of Brevard and Volusia counties were naive about dope coming in,'' said Nesossis. ''We've got our groups here who have been doing it for years and will do it regardless. There is a lot of money in Central Florida and that is what it takes, somebody with money to back you.''

Nesossis said agents get much of their information from people who report suspicious activity, especially in the county's harbors. He also said others provide information for a different reason -- revenge.

''Our biggest asset is the general public,'' Nesossis said. ''But we get a lot of information a day late.''

To try and swing the odds more in their favor, Customs has given the Brevard unit three new vessels. Two are sleek 34-foot chase boats that can give smugglers a run for their money. The other is a larger vessel that officers dock at an unknown location to keep its identity and whereabouts masked.

''We're trying to keep this boat as cold as possible,'' Nesossis said.

Officers also are ready to try different patrol tactics.

Nesossis said the larger boat and its sophisticated radar will be used as a ''floating platform'' to spot vessels before sending in chase boats and boarding parties. Officers also receive help from a scout plane used by the Brevard County Sheriff's Department.